TBtech April Edition

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STORIES INSPIRED BY MODERN LIVING.

APRIL 2023

Smart living.

FOCUSING ON THE ADVANCES IN SMART TECH.

Global team of analysts, at your reach 24/7

Contain threats both on-prem and on the cloud

Incident response teams to mitigate any threats

Real time analytics

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DELIVERING EV CHARGING INFRASTRUCTURE TO MEET 2030 NEEDS.

Those responsible for the deployment of EV infrastructure need to understand their user’s needs, which should inform long-term roll-outs, and design procurement processes that incentivise charging point providers to deliver quality long-term deployments.

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The era of software-defined everything is pushing the pace of innovation and transforming market segments ranging from aerospace to industrial, defense to medical, and networking to automotive.

Meet your tbtech team.

Joe has vast experience and knowledge accumulated and honed as a New Business Development Manager and Relationship Manager. Responsible for generating new business opportunities, looking after the growth of the company and strategy, sourcing new ventures and managing the company.

Paul stops at nothing to innovate and create value for our customers. His mission is help those we work with to win in their markets. Passionate about delivering customer success and have had the pleasure of supporting many of the world’s leading technology brands for over 15 years.

Matt is Operations Manager at TBTech, he has spent the last 15 years working with multinational IT companies building campaigns, GTM strategies, leading both Sales and Marketing teams to achieve organisational goals. With a love of computer science, history, and psychology he is an advocate for change, operational efficiency and automation. Value across the business for all our customers.

JOE ALLEN

PAUL WHITTALL

MATT ROBERTS

We have been working behind-the-scenes to elevate the readers experience.

ERIN LANAHAN

Erin’s love for advertising and design has led her to Tbtech as a Media Marketing Apprentice. As a new member of the team, she is looking forward to exploring new skills and learning more about the tech sector .

WILLIAM MOORE

William’s passion starts and ends with design, timeless aesthetic and creative solutions. Having worked on numerous creative campaigns ranging from car manufacturers, leading tech companies, property investors as well as local artisans, the goal is to create the ultimate brand experience between the client and the consumer.

growing audience, of thousands

Smart Wallet

Link & Lock Carabiner

A bifold wallet to protect against identity theft.

A patented mechanism that ejects cards from its aluminum storage pocket with the press of a button. It has space for at least ten cards, as well as a strap for carrying cash and receipts.

Power Bank

The coolest and best accessory for Apple AirTags we’ve encountered yet.

Crafted from ultra tough zinc, this product has a heavy-duty lock with a three-digit combination code. The standout feature makes tampering with your favorite tracker and removing it from an item practically impossible.

Anker’s 737 power bank can charge your laptop.

A fast USB-C connector with a maximum power output of 140 watts. It has a battery pack with ample capacity, and rather impressively, a color screen to help you keep tabs on the charging process.

Apple Watch Series 8

3D Printer

Health, fitness and wellness tracking capabilities, powered by heart rate.

The timepiece is also the first Apple Watch to have crash detection — an all-new, lifesaving feature. Apple offers the Series 8 with a 41- or 45-millimeter case in a multitude of finishes. Optional cellular network connectivity is available once again. You can customize the timepiece with a wide selection of bands and cases.

The AnkerMake M5 is the 3D printer recommendation for most consumers.

it can crank out complex objects at best-in-class speed, including elaborate ones that use multiple filament materials. The splurgeworthy product i also elegant and easy to operate via a touchscreen and a companion app.

TBtech explores the advances in smart tech.

Studio Headphones

Monitor 60 wired headphones are more feature-rich and capable than the price tag suggests.

The over-ear cans produce a detail-rich sound equally suitable for studio work and enjoying Hi-Res Audio content. Their exceptionally padded ear pads and reliable noise isolation are just as impressive. The set of bundled accessories—three audio cables and a stylish storage bag—is also remarkable.

Smart Alarm Clock

Hatch Restore alarm clock is a high-tech nightstand upgrade.

The nifty gadget’s built-in light can simulate a sunrise for gentle wake ups and deliver relaxing ambient sounds alongside a sunset-like glow for aid in falling asleep. Integrated touch controls are handy for browsing a rich selection of lighting and sound experiences.

Wireless Gaming Mouse

As feature-rich and capable as a top-shelf gaming mouse can be.

Thanks to a cutting-edge, ultra precise optical sensor with 25,000 DPI, the accessory can deliver uncompromising pro-grade performance in wireless and wired modes. As expected, the gaming mouse has customizable buttons and lighting (via a software suite), as well as up to 120 hours of gameplay between battery charges.

Air Purifier

The Coway Airmega 240 is one of today’s best HEPA air purifiers.

It has an elegant and minimalist design and a sophisticated airfiltration setup with an impressive capacity, all at an agreeable price. Remarkably, the product needs only 30 minutes to filter the air in up to 975 square feet of space.

It’s capable of streaming and recording studio-grade sound.

It has mixer-style controls and incredibly cool RGB lighting. Overall, this is an excellent buy for gamers who want to stream their adventures online or for anyone who needs an audio upgrade for their WFH setup.

TBtech explores the advances in smart tech.

It pays to be smart.

With smartphones in nearly every pocket and internet connectivity almost ubiquitous, people today have more access to data than ever before. Before we even draw the curtains in the morning, we can instantly access weather forecasts for the day. When traveling, we can immediately check for any delays in our journey. When researching a purchase, we can compare prices, read customer reviews and research availability, all without leaving the comfort of our homes.

By Christian Floerkemeier, CTO and Co-Founder, Scandit.

It pays to be smart.

However, access to real-time data hasn’t necessarily spilled over into the business world. Here, we regularly find workers struggling to access accurate information on products or customer orders, or data collection processes which are outdated, cumbersome or disjointed. In fact, about a third of frontline workers in a recent report stated that the tools or technology they currently have are not enough to complete their tasks effectively.

Anecdotes abound about workers put into difficult or uncomfortable situations due to a lack of appropriate access to data, or an inability to capture it effectively. Store associates in a large supermarket chain who hide from customers, knowing that they couldn’t easily answer their questions; convenience store managers needing to lie down on a shop floor in order to scan goods on the lowest shelves for stock takes - but it doesn’t have to be this way.

Smart data capture combines multiple data sources (such as barcodes, text or objects) and provides in-the-moment insights, automating workflows and aiding decision making.

MAKE DATA WORK FOR US - NOT THE OTHER WAY AROUND

It makes no sense to misuse a business’ most valuable asset, its people, particularly in a business climate where attracting and retaining frontline workers is a challenge. Requiring workers to undertake repetitive and mundane tasks which could be automated, such as stock-counting, receiving goods, or price-checking, underutilizes and demotivates staff. We are not talking about eliminating workers and replacing them with technology. It is far better to tap into true human strengths and use technology to increase efficiencies and provide real-time insights, freeing up workers for more engaging, valuable tasks.

For example, fashion retailer River Island noticed the overwhelming store operations workloads its employees had to deal with on a daily basis. So, it started replacing its hardware-based scanning devices and equipping each employee with a Samsung smartphone enabled with smart data capture technology.

Replacing single-use dedicated scanners shared between four, staff now had immediate, individual access to product information and stock availability, meaning they could instantly answer a wide range of customer queries, manage click and collect orders and communicate across the store with other team members - all from one device.

By shifting tedious tasks to technology - for example scanning multiple items or even a whole shelf or rack in a warehouse at once - we can reduce discomfort and frustration and revolutionize end-to-end workflows. Artificial intelligence can be built into smart data capture solutions, for example automatically identifying objects on a shelf or pallet to

quickly and accurately complete stock counts, helping people speed through daily tasks.

According to a 2022 PWC study, upskilling workers is the number one focus for employers challenged with labour and skill shortages. Smart data capture solutions can provide workers with easy, immediate access to product or stock availability data, helping them quickly serve customers with accurate information. Some devices or applications offer augmented reality (AR) overlays, providing additional guidance to workers when completing their tasks, reducing the amount of manual cross-checking necessary and reducing or eliminating errors.

Apart from the time freed up to serve customers better, smart data capture solutions can also provide personalized information about customers to the worker, enabling valuable personal interaction, whether those customers are shoppers, travelers or patients.

EMPOWERING CUSTOMERS

Smart data capture also offers benefits to the end customer, improving their experience and equipping them with relevant information at the right time to make smarter and faster decisions.

Many retailers use smart data capture in customer applications, meaning shoppers can use mobile self-scanning tools in supermarkets to check out faster. Some tools put product information directly into customers’ hands, allowing them to scan an item to check on stock availability, product features or even the carbon footprint of a particular product, while other applications offer personalized discounts or offers. Those buying online can easily check the fulfillment status of a particular order, or even change delivery location or timings.

A great example is Weeshop, which successfully integrated smart data capture into a consumerfacing app which uses AR overlays to educate and guide customers on the healthiness and environmental impact of the products in their weekly shop. Nisa has done similar work, with customers now able to access exclusive promotions via AR.

Within the travel industry, smart data capture can also improve a customer’s experience, as people can use automated check-ins, or make last-minute decisions such as changing their seats or adapting their meals to meet dietary requirements - safe in the knowledge that this information will safely reach the hands of staff in time for the journey.

BUSINESS DECISIONS AT SPEED AND AT SCALE

Using smart data capture improves staff productivity and satisfaction and boosts customer loyalty and engagement. Immediate access to data can wipe weeks or even months of waiting for data to return to business analysts from the frontline. When businesses can capture data and allow relevant audiences real-time access to it, workflow inefficiencies are resolved and better decision making - and ultimately, profitability - follows. It’s clear why so many organizations across multiple industries are investing in smart data capture technologies, delivering real business results at pace.

Fast-moving tech.

The fast-moving tech industry is constantly changing, and businesses must remain competitive to stay ahead. Intellectual property (IP) is a valuable asset for tech companies, and protecting it is crucial. One way to do this is through virtual patent marking (VPM). VPM is an alternative to traditional physical patent marking that saves time, money, and effort for patent owners. It allows them to mark their products with patent information through a dedicated VPM URL on their website.

By Jim Gastle, co-founder of Markr.

Fast-moving tech.

Terrifio, an IP and legal software service provider, has launched its Markr system, an online virtual patent marking tool that automates repetitive tasks and maintains a litigation-ready audit trail. Markr helps companies accurately record and post their patents online, making VPM evidence creation for patent enforcement and litigation a thing of the past.

Markr users can build a database of their pending applications, published applications, and issued patents and link each with associated products. Once the database is completed, users can download a fully populated VPM Notice Page that is easily posted to a dedicated VPM URL on their website. They can then finalize the VPM requirements by adding the VPM link to online product information and labels on associated products. Updates to the VPM Notice Page can be made as new patent applications are filed or on a periodic schedule.

Jim Gastle, co-founder of Markr, explains that VPM can be a valuable addition to any tech company’s IP program and its proactive processes. “With a chance to participate in the early access program, businesses can test the potential of virtual patent marking for their business at no cost. Once an active VPM program foundation is established, companies have the security of knowing that potential infringers have clear and up-to-date constructive notice.”

Virtual patent marking offers many benefits over traditional patent marking, the most obvious being saving considerable time and expense as the patent owner no longer needs to individually manage the minutia of placing specific patent information on a specific version of products and/ or packaging. It also eliminates the need for expensive updates. Instead, it can be updated via the online VPM link on demand.

Gastle, who has 25 years of experience as a Registered Patent Agent in Canada, and working closely with U.S. patent attorneys, was surprised that while some of the top global proprietary product brand firms had a VPM page, the vast majority do not. Without a VPM program, companies may be eroding considerable value and leverage in damages provided by an early constructive notice date. Without such notice, these businesses may be self-limiting the potential damages to the time period starting from the date of sending an actual notice letter, rather than potentially capitalizing on up to a full six-year period preceding the filing of a complaint, potentially leading to a significant loss in money damages.

Markr presents a compelling proposition to efficiently build a marking baseline, maintain traceable records, and update information in real-time. It can be used as a standalone platform, and following the initial free early access period, the pricing for Markr will be linked to various usage packages similar to other Software as a Service (SaaS) pricing models.

Grant Peters, partner, Barnes & Thornburg LLP, comments that some patent owners may not use virtual patent marking due to unfamiliarity with the process and the perceived effort required to establish a baseline. He believes that there is value in virtual patent marking, but unlocking it requires early, proper, traceable patent marking. Markr can help businesses achieve this efficiently, making VPM accessible to a wider audience.

In conclusion, Terrifio’s Markr system is an innovative online virtual patent marking tool that can help businesses save time and money. It allows patent owners to accurately record and post their patents online, eliminating the need for expensive updates. With VPM, businesses can establish timely, early constructive notice

Agile processes improve organizations.

As innovation continues to open new doors for organizations to enhance their operations and improve efficiency, consumers’ expectations of the experience and value they receive will evolve. Speed of service remains a top priority, and consumers no longer need to waste time with businesses that can’t meet their needs with minimal steps and complications in between.

By Scott Opitz, Chief Technology Officer at ABBYY.

Agile processes improve organizations.

This poses a significant problem for businesses that have clung with white knuckles to legacy platforms or shied away from digitally transforming their internal processes. The decentralization of technology, rise of intelligent automation, and high importance placed on the customer has enabled businesses on the bleeding edge to quickly adapt to the status quo and deliver value at the speed of thought.

This is achieved through agile processes, meaning processes that are both quick and easily responsive to change or external factors. By pursuing agility, organizations can eliminate unnecessary red tape within their operations, not only delivering a more satisfactory customer experience but also allowing employees to adjust their tools and workflows to their strengths and the reality of their work.

While “agility” might seem like a catch-all buzzword, it is an achievable outcome yielded by implementing the right tools

and platforms with efficiency in mind. From increasing revenue to customer loyalty, read on for 4 ways agile processes can improve organizations.

LOW-CODE/NO-CODE EMPOWERS AGILITY OF CITIZEN DEVELOPERS/ BUSINESS USERS

Employees’ productivity can be bottlenecked by limitations in the tools that they use. Not all processes look the same end-toend, and unexpected variables or unique scenarios can necessitate the customization of tools and platforms used by employees. If these tools can’t be adapted without a degree in computer science or extensive IT knowledge, additional support is required, and a once-simple task now requires helpdesk tickets, email correspondence, and more overall obstacles than if the initial user was able to make the necessary changes themselves.

This is where low-code/nocode platforms enable agile organizations to expedite internal processes and elevate employees

to citizen developers. Intuitive, accessible, and customizable tools prevent the overcomplication of tasks and the accrual of technical debt. Organizations can adjust to client needs on an ad-hoc basis without unnecessary bureaucracy.

Tax season, for example, brings an influx of highly detailed forms with wide varieties of personal information and special circumstances. A rigid platform for document processing would have severely limited utility when getting into the weeds of a business or individual’s finances. Tax services with these legacy platforms that require advanced coding to modify would yield significantly slower processing times than a counterpart using low-code/nocode tools. By improving straightthrough processing rates of documents and reducing the need for human intervention, low-code/ no-code document processing allows for agile adaptation that will keep organizations competitive in the race to provide speedy and satisfying service to customers.

AGILE FRONT-END PROCESSES IMPROVE CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE AND RETENTION

Slow-going customer onboarding and other tedious front-facing processes will discourage use of your product or service.

Arduous identity proofing and repetitive manual entry are the antithesis of agility and will not garner customer loyalty when, for example, banking institutions have set a standard for an almost instantaneous speed of service.

A recent survey identified organizations’ top reasons for abandonment during customer onboarding, among which were excessive steps (29%), difficult identity proofing (26%) and excessive manual entry (26%), among others.

Proof of identity is a key pain point that can drastically improve the agility of the onboarding process, thus reducing drop-out rates and improving customer loyalty and advocacy. Requiring users to toggle between various screens, email documents to themselves, or

dig up personal information poses too many obstacles between consumers and the service they need and provides many opportunities to get distracted and abandon the process.

Limiting proof of identity to only a handful of steps that can all be completed from the same application or interface keeps users engaged and satisfied, reflecting positively upon the organization and strengthening perceptions of professionalism and valuation of the customer.

INTELLIGENT PROCESSES INCREASE REVENUE

Agile processes that directly relate to revenue, such as accounts payable, can increase profitability. Invoice processing is inherently document-heavy, which can involve laborious and repetitive manual entry if organizations haven’t automated their document processing. Opting for manual entry over automation solutions wastes time and money and increases the likelihood of errors.

Agile accounts payable processes enable a higher, faster volume of processing with fewer errors, allowing businesses to take advantage of early payment discounts, avoid duplicate payments, and decrease cost per invoice.

USING AI TOOLS TO UNDERSTAND BUSINESS LOGIC AND PROCESSES

The rise of tools driven by artificial intelligence and machine learning has enabled businesses to understand their own processes and operations more thoroughly. Attempting to improve the agility of a process without a comprehensive understanding of every step is a fool’s errand that will lead only to the misallocation of time and resources. Automating the wrong aspects of a workflow can even have direct adverse effects on outcomes, such as delaying a back-end bottleneck until it is more visible to the customer rather than eliminating it altogether. One such tool to understand your own operations is process intelligence, which combines task and process mining to depict an accurate and

detailed model of a workflow to better identify opportunities for agility and automation. From understanding individual clicks and keystrokes with task mining to gaining a higher-level perspective through process mining, IT leaders can use these insights to guide their implementation of intelligent solutions and take a clearer path toward organizational agility.

AGILITY REMAINS A PRIORITY

Agility is not a fad ephemerally adopted by enterprises with recent trends in artificial intelligence and machine learning. It’s an approach to operations that brings objective improvements in sustainability and improves employee and customer experiences. Although many organizations have not reached full maturity with agile processes, innovation in automation and the use of other intelligent solutions imply that returns on investment in agility are only going to grow.

The problem with agents.

Modern businesses are always trying to improve their user experience. By effectively using APIs they’ve been able to reach users across multiple digital touchpoints and have made the consumer journey relatively frictionless. “Reach the customer where they are,” as the mantra goes—and if the customer doesn’t want to go to one specific website, then APIs enable a less siloed online experience. APIs facilitate communication between software, for everything from daily weather updates to authentication using the likes of Google and embedded payment services. To do so, they must be open and easy to use.

By Cyril Noel-Tagoe, Principal Security Researcher at Netacea.

The problem with agents.

A prime example from recent years is the introduction of APIs to banking services, to facilitate Open Banking. It’s now possible to have a multitude of credit cards and savings accounts displayed in a single app, enabling users to make payments via an app and without the use of cards. APIs are only going to become more common as services are embedded in websites, in apps, and even elsewhere.

But the march of the APIs means the agents often used to protect websites won’t help.

AGENTS AND WEBSITE PROTECTION

A great deal of website protection requires software agents, autonomous pieces of software that performs tasks without user input. These agents are sometimes referred to as “bots”; which is ironic given that the threats they are often deployed against are bot attacks.

Bot attacks are performed by hackers for a number of nefarious purposes. In a credential stuffing attack, they will use automation to check a list of breached passwords against another service to try and take over the account. Card cracking is similar but checks the validity of stolen credit card details. Bots can also be used to buy and sell high-value items for a profit, most often airline seats, gig tickets and limited edition sneakers. However, not all bots are bad.

Sites that aggregate prices often use bots to fetch data from multiple sites, and search engines use them to crawl and index the web. Clearly blocking bots en masse is not advisable, as it can mean blocking valuable services, or even being invisible to search engines, damaging a website’s SEO. Identifying the good bots from the bad bots is a must, and this is where software agents are typically employed—bots fighting bots.

While this may sound like the premise for a sci-fi thriller, there are problems with this approach. Agents are inserted into websites using snippets of javascript code or integrated into apps using SDKs, and this means some level of reverse engineering is possible. Plus agents need to be managed, and our research suggests that this task alone can require up to 40 employees in the biggest corporations.

The testing and deployment of agents can take a great deal of time as different versions have to be created for websites and mobile apps, and often cut-down, if used at all, for APIs. Agents require a front end to work—unless the API sits behind a website or mobile app, and many do not, there is no way to deploy an agent to protect it.

THE GROWTH OF APIS

API traffic now exceeds web traffic by quite some distance. Cloudflare, for instance, estimates that more than 50% of the traffic it sees is calling an API. It’s easy to see why—these are often automated calls from other websites, from mobile apps, from IoT devices and more. That makes it even more difficult to tell what is a bot attack, and yet APIs often enjoy less protection from software agents than they offer websites and mobile apps.

The market needs to move away from software agents as the preferred method of protection against bot attacks, and instead look to agentless approaches that provide equal protection for websites, apps and APIs.

These approaches can be better equipped to fight against bot attacks. Software agents are rule-based, meaning that if a way around can be found (for example, staying just below a rate limit rule) then there is no way for an agent to adapt to this. Agentless approaches, by comparison, can evolve without the need for an update to be pushed out to different agents.

As the web evolves, so should the technology that protects it. With increasing automation comes increased risk of automated attacks. The limits of software agents are more and more obvious in an API-led world and need to be left behind.

Great user experiences.

As companies and their specific business functions continue to face pressure to do more with less, have you ever wondered how much time and resource they waste on training and inductions to bring their employees up to speed on how to use new software and workplace applications? And even if those people are quick learners it often still takes more time before they are able to quickly and easily use these programs and platforms, such are the complex and unfriendly user interfaces most contain.

By Matt Malden Chief Product Officer at Globality.

Great user experiences.

In contrast, most apps that the same employees use in their personal lives are simple and straightforward as their B2C counterparts. As we embrace the ‘Year of the Autonomous Enterprise’ it’s incumbent upon businesses to empower their teams with intuitive, userfriendly software because the ability to self-serve quickly and effortlessly has a direct impact on employee productivity and overall satisfaction.

But if we are to get to an autonomous era where companies are introducing self-serve systems to replace inefficient or toohuman-dependent business processes, then we must address the ongoing problem of the cumbersome user experience that is frequently encountered in the corporate world.

Although we are in the 2020s and so in the seventh decade of commercial data processing software, the average business application is still far from userfriendly. This is concerning because there is no reason why business software should be difficult to use or unappealing in appearance. The lack of userfriendliness in business software indicates an indifference to the needs of customers by too many B2B platform suppliers.

Even the most complex processes for intricate and high-value transactions can be streamlined and made useful. However, doing so takes more than just modifying the font or incorporating a few colours. Let’s see how.

UNDERSTANDING WHAT THE USER IS TRYING TO DO

In the ideal world, enterprise software shouldn’t require extensive training, a great deal of concentration to use and pianist-level finger movement control to navigate. Business apps must be based on a welldesigned interaction framework, be consistent and intuitive in order to drive the highest levels of ease of use.

It’s only by doing all this that we can get what you and your users want: an app they don’t hate to use, even if they must. Achieving this starts with interface designers having a deep understanding of the mental model that users bring to the application. Without this, designers will struggle to grasp what the user is trying to achieve and how the software is communicating that information within the user’s pre-existing mental model.

And this is a critical aspect of UX (User Experience) that must never be overlooked. Achieving optimal user-friendliness in business applications requires designers to have a keen awareness of users’ mental models and to design interfaces that align with them seamlessly. I have seen this up close more than once. In my last job at DocuSign I witnessed how minor design alterations can profoundly affect user experience.

We’d noticed that users were not responding the way our model expected to a ‘Sign’ button, the desired CTA (call to action). After conducting comprehensive user testing, we realised that users were interpreting the button as a binding agreement commitment even before viewing the document.

We swiftly addressed the issue by making it clear to users that they always had a final preview and sign-off. This lesson can be applied to deliver excellent B2B UX. To enable employees to selfserve with confidence, in other words, it’s crucial to appreciate the importance of understanding users’ ‘mental models’ and how they will perceive and interpret actions within an application.

UX BEST PRACTICE

In B2B applications, we need to prioritise and progressively disclose functionality or risk inundating the user with too much information or too many choices.

Users often have specific tasks that they need to accomplish regularly, but they may also have occasional or more complex tasks that require additional steps. Structuring the functionality in a way that accommodates both primary and secondary use cases is crucial for achieving a good user experience.

Experienced UX designers understand the significance of paying close attention to what in the trade are called cognitive, visual, and motor load when creating excellent user experiences. The first type, cognitive load, can cause users to feel overwhelmed and confused if an application requires too much mental effort to use. To minimise it, it’s essential to simplify interfaces and remove unnecessary steps.

The second type, visual load, refers to the amount of visual information presented to the user. A cluttered interface with too many elements can be overwhelming and make it difficult for the user to find what they need.

And lastly, ‘motor’ load pertains to the physical effort required to use a software application. Asking users to repeatedly click on tiny objects on the screen and use extensive hand and wrist movements can be unrealistic and frustrating. It really should be as easy as using your banking app on the phone.

So it’s crucial for enterprise software to prioritise userfriendliness. Although it may be difficult to achieve the same level of usability as the iPhone, business applications should still be enjoyable and empowering. There’s a real cost to not applying these proven techniques to app design. Without user-friendly software, teams won’t be able to self-serve and automate their roles, making it impossible to achieve the desired autonomous model. Your business can and should reconfigure processes to take advantage of automation and cut down friction in everyone’s working day. That way you can stay competitive and enhance the overall working experience.

Pitfalls to avoid.

Working from home, hybrid working, SaaS, cloud migration, secure remote access, ransomware, phishing attacks, social engineering, credential theft, BYOD – the list goes on and on. Securing remote workers has never been so complex or fraught with risk. But the old methods of securing remote workers are no longer fit for purpose. VPNs are notoriously insecure and don’t scale. Backhauling Internet traffic to a secure data center increases latency and can impact performance. Blacklisting shuts off entire sections of the dynamic Internet, preventing users from getting work done.

By Mark Guntrip, Senior Director Cybersecurity Strategy, Menlo Security.

Pitfalls to avoid.

Yet, organizations continue to tackle new security problems with old technologies. Security strategies need to evolve to meet the needs of today’s business – where users can log on and access corporate resources from anywhere and anytime, no matter what device they are using, and expect to be protected from today’s highly sophisticated threats without impacting performance.

But old habits die hard. These are five pitfalls that organizations fall into when trying to protect remote workers:

1. IGNORING UNMANAGED DEVICES

It’s easy to put your head in the sand and pretend that users aren’t accessing corporate systems on their personal devices. With corporate policies in place, people understand the security risks they are taking by using their phone, tablet, or laptop when logging in. But they do it anyway. Unmanaged devices (and networks, such as home Wi-Fi) pose a major security risk to the organization.

The consumerization of the cloud has also made it easier than ever for users to use a credit card to use own systems or create an infrastructure without following corporate policies or letting IT know. It takes one click to give threat actors access to a device and then spread throughout the network, so businesses need to make sure they can secure the connection between unmanaged devices and corporate systems.

Isolation technology, for example, can create a virtual air gap between users and web content, stopping ransomware, drive-by attacks, and malware before they can access end devices. This is a user-centric rather than devicecentric approach, ensuring that even unmanaged devices and infrastructure (that IT is not aware of) are protected.

2. FAIL TO PLAN, PLAN TO FAIL

Malicious actors are becoming more sophisticated and adaptive in their methods. Cybersecurity is a constant battle between threat actors and security teams. As soon as a new security control is developed, attackers quickly find a way around it. The gap is then plugged by a new tool, and attackers identify another way in. What works today won’t necessarily work tomorrow. Today’s Highly Evasive Adaptive Threats (HEAT) target web browsers and employ techniques to evade multiple layers of detection in current security stacks, including firewalls, sandbox analysis, and phishing detection. HEAT attacks can be used as the initial access point to deliver malware or to compromise credentials, which in many cases leads to ransomware and other attacks. Knowledge is power when it comes to all matters security related, and even more so when it comes to emerging threats like HEAT attacks.

3. RELYING ON VPNS

VPN appliances are not scalable enough to meet the needs of digital, agile organizations where users need to access applications quickly and reliably wherever they are. Once credentials are compromised through social engineering, fake login forms, or phishing, threat actors have unrestricted access to the network with little to no east-west security controls in place. Even when they do work, VPNs sap bandwidth and increase latency by backhauling Internet traffic to a secure data center.

Organizations should look at alternative methods of secure remote access, such as cloudbased application isolation, providing connections to applications with a layer of threat prevention. This offers enhanced Zero Trust access and maximizes security posture without impacting the end user experience.

4. OVER-CONSOLIDATING SECURITY SOLUTIONS

Vendor consolidation makes sense to some extent. According to Anomali, organizations rely on an average of 50 to 80 security tools, and that rises to 120 for large enterprises. This software sprawl can lead to higher capital and opex costs while causing integration and visibility issues.

In 2022, Gartner reported that 75% of global organizations plan to consolidate their security vendors over the next 12 months. But too much consolidation can result in a degradation of effectiveness. No vendor can deliver a best of breed security solution that protects across all threat vectors. Anyone who attempts to develop or bolt together a complete solution inevitably will have to compromise. While it makes sense to do some consolidation, relying on a single vendor introduces too much risk. Software sprawl and tech debt are big problems in the industry, but companies must be careful when trading simplicity for weaker protection.

5. RELYING ON DETECT AND RESPOND

The trend in security over recent years has been to tell customers that breaches are inevitable and to focus on detecting malicious behavior inside the network. East-west security is critical, but it shouldn’t come at the expense of protection. HEAT attacks bypass traditional detect-and-respond cybersecurity approaches by hiding in plain sight among seemingly innocuous technologies, such as JavaScript and VPNs. Threat actors can breach the network avoiding detection for days, weeks, or even months. The problem is that the speed at which they make their move after the initial breach. Even a few minutes can be enough time to deliver the payload. Despite what some security vendors say, protection is not a losing battle – prevention works.

The combination of SASE security and Zero Trust, which sees all content as suspect and subject to strict security controls, results in a preventative approach that addresses the legacy flaws of today’s network security stack and changes outcomes.

Digital transformation.

The experience economy – What it is, and why organizations should embrace it as part of their digital transformation strategy Tech is everywhere. It has become a ubiquitous part of modern life, with smartphones acting as digital Swiss Army knives that serve as communication devices, internet browsers, and banking platforms, etc., all rolled into one. Meanwhile, smart assistants like Google Home and Amazon Alexa are helping to redefine standards for convenience in the home, enabling users to control the level of lighting in their living room, set their burglar alarm when heading out, or add items to their shopping list, simply with the power of their voice.

By Mark Sweeny, Founder & Chief Executive, de Novo Solutions.

Digital transformation.

With all this technology constantly changing how we see and interact with the world, people are understandably eager for other digital devices and services to provide experiences that are personalized to their individual needs. After all, according to a McKinsey report titled: ‘The value of getting personalization right’, 71% of consumers expect companies to deliver personalized interactions, while a further 76% say they get frustrated when this doesn’t happen. It seems, therefore, that personalization is no longer just a ‘nice to have’, but something that customers demand, and if businesses are not able to provide these experiences, they will simply look elsewhere. This trend of greater personalization has led to the birth of the ‘experience economy’, which has seen businesses placing increased focus on using digital technology to offer more unique and personalized experiences, not only for the benefit of customers, but for employees also. After all, tailoring the technology that workers use on a daily basis allows them to carry out their roles more effectively and efficiently

than ever before.

Given the rise of the experience economy, those companies that take the time to fine tune the personalized experiences that they provide will likely reap the rewards of their efforts and, as such, organisations must make the trend a central part of their digital transformation strategy.

CONVERSATIONAL AI

As mentioned above, the experience economy is not a phenomenon that is limited only to providing personalized experiences to individual consumers. Businesses are also keen for the technology used to power their key processes to become more tailor made to their needs, thereby giving employees the tools needed to carry out their roles more efficiently. There is a wealth of technologies now available to businesses who want to improve digital experiences, both for their workers and customers. Artificial Intelligence [AI], for example, is enabling companies to enhance their customer support, through

advancements like conversational AI. This is giving organisations the ability to automate low-value/ high-volume customer queries that they receive, alleviating the burden on human agents and providing customers with 24/7 support, meaning their query can be answered more quickly. Not only does this lead to increased customer engagement, being that customers are more likely to return if they had a positive experience, but also greater satisfaction with the service. On top of this, human agents who are often forced to spend much of their time manually responding to queries can be freed up to work on other areas of the business where their input has greater value.

Furthermore, virtual agents also have the ability to automatically pull a customer’s data, such as their name, location, IP address, etc to suggest new products and services that they might be interested in based on previous preferences, or even to engage with the customer in their native language. This ties in with a recent industry survey which found that 91% of consumers

are likely to go with a brand that recognizes, remembers, and provides them with relevant offers and recommendations. These are just some of the simple ways that AI can help to enrich the user experience, and for businesses to demonstrate their ongoing commitment to improving products and services.

MACHINE LEARNING

Machine learning is another prime technology within the experience economy that is helping businesses to personalize customer journeys. In essence, machine learning uses AI systems to automatically learn from customer experiences without the intervention of human agents. This means that the technology can look back across a customer’s entire conversation history with the organisation to gain an understanding of their situation, as well as what can be done to assist them. Again, this is an effective way to relieve the burden of manual response, given that businesses can have confidence that virtual agents have the knowledge to accurately address ongoing customer issues.

In addition to this, machine learning can help to improve customers’ opinion of the brand by demonstrating an awareness of who they are, and how they have communicated with the company to date. After all, customers do not want to have to explain their situation every time they get in touch with the organisation. They want to be able to understand progress of an ongoing issue or pick up where they left off as seamlessly as possible. Machine learning makes this possible. By analyzing patterns in customer data, organisations can get even more value out of their investment in machine learning technology. With a broader picture of the types of issues that customers are facing, as well as what solutions they are looking for, organisations can make more informed decisions when it comes to marketing and service delivery that are not only beneficial to themselves, but are also genuinely effective at helping customers. In delivering the more personalized experiences that come with this, businesses can increase brand loyalty and, as such, truly stand out from their competitors.

EXPERIENCE IS KING

In today’s business landscape, organisations must constantly seek new ways to enhance the technology that is at their disposal to streamline processes and provide better services to customers. When undergoing a digital transformation, firms must keep the importance of the experience economy at the forefront of their minds, given how crucial it is when it comes to keeping customers on their side amid a market competing for the best consumer experiences.

By working with Software as a Service [SaaS] providers, companies can use enterprisewide platforms driven by technologies like AI and machine learning to create personalized work experiences through digital workflows, pulling in data from multiple front and back office systems, as well as external third party systems, where necessary. It is understandable that many businesses will want to focus on what they do best and leave the experts to it. By hiring a consultancy, organisations can do

exactly that, with peace of mind that they are making positive steps towards enhancing experiences.

In doing so, businesses can form a hybrid Cloud structure that allows them to maximize opportunities, personalize customer and employee experiences, and ensure that data integrity is not compromised. Not only can investing in customer and employee experiences lead to increased revenue from the delivery of more efficient products and services, but can also lead to greater employee satisfaction, which translates to greater retention of staff. All in all, making such an investment can be hugely positive, and genuinely transformative for company performance and brand reputation.

The public sector.

Web scraping, alternative data, and many other things have been the buzz in the private sector. Digital businesses have been looking for ways to diversify their data portfolios for more accurate decision making and discovery of new strategies. Unfortunately, the adoption of all the above in the public sector hasn’t been as successful. Few, if any, institutions employ web scraping. Even fewer have the necessary tools and expertise to work with alternative data. A lot of different reasons can be found: legacy systems, lack of availability for technical expertise, slower adoption of new technologies. Nevertheless, there should be a push towards greater adoption as the uses could usher in a completely new era for the public sector.

By Julius Černiauskas, Chief Executive Officer at Oxylabs.

The public sector.

WHAT IS ALTERNATIVE DATA?

Alternative data is defined through negation. It’s not a type that’s described as having features, rather it is data that’s not acquired through traditional methods. These traditional methods include institutions and government bodies that collect data for reporting purposes.

Government census data is the perfect example of a traditional source. It takes ages to collect, it’s released on a yearly (or even slower) basis, has lots of regulatory bodies surrounding it, etc. Company tax filings, if they are public, would be another case of traditional data.

Alternative data would be everything the above is not. That might not seem like a helpful definition, but it gets easier to understand with a little involvement. In fact, most alternative data consists of images, web scraped information from the internet, and many other sources.

An unfortunate side effect of alternative data is that it’s significantly harder to acquire and work with. Unless it’s bought from third-party alternative data vendors, most of it is unstructured, hard to understand, and requires a lot of pre-processing.

Outside of outright buying the data, web scraping is the only semi-accessible piece of the puzzle that could make the alternative data acquisition process palatable. Newer solutions work almost completely out-of-the-box, allowing users with minimal software development knowledge to collect data from the internet.

With all of the data being left online by individuals and businesses, government and other public sector entities could find tremendous value in an organized collection approach. The use cases are almost impossible to enumerate.

ALTERNATIVE DATA USE CASES FOR THE PUBLIC SECTOR

Law enforcement is one of the primary areas where governments and other public sector entities can use alternative data and web scraping. There are a wide variety of crimes that can, intentionally or not, leave traces online.

Some infringements or crimes happen purely online. Copyright or intellectual property infringements, for example, are a common occurrence in cyberspace. These, however, are generally handled through civil cases and don’t involve governments.

Criminal offenses, such as the possession and distribution of illegal or harmful content, can be uncovered through the combined use of web scraping and artificial intelligence. Oxylabs have proven that to be the case through the GovTech challenge.

The Communications Regulatory Authority of the Republic of Lithuania (RRT) had hosted a hackathon for the detection of images of child abuse within the Lithuanian IP space. Our team at Oxylabs went on to win the competition with an AI-powered solution that involves web scraping.

In simple terms, the application continually scans the internet, downloads images, runs them through machine learning models, and if any potentially abusive content is happened upon, it is forwarded to the authorities. As of 2022, the tool has been fully integrated into the daily operations of RRT.

TRACKING THE SHADOW ECONOMY AND MONEY FLOWS

But alternative data can serve the public sector in much simpler ways without necessitating artificial intelligence or machine learning. A great example would be tracking shadow economy trades for better estimations.

Shadow economy is often quite difficult to track due to the inherent nature of it being hidden from traditional statistics. Outside of faked salaries, a significant portion of the shadow economy thrives through undeclared income from secondary sources.

One of the most common ways to avoid taxes (or launder money) is through in-person sales of household goods. In our case, such income wouldn’t be presented to tax authorities, bolstering the shadow economy.

Luckily, a lot of such activity now happens online through the help of classified ad websites such as Craigslist or user-generated marketplaces like eBay. Any advertisement or proposal will have either account or contact information added.

As long as a government institution has access to methods for acquiring such data and matching it with internal records, any sales can be tracked on a large scale. As a result, alternative data can enrich tax collection practices.

Additionally, such calculations would help finance departments estimate the scale of the shadow economy with more accuracy. Such data would be beneficial when new policies intended to curb the growth of undeclared income are implemented. It would enable the measurement of their effectiveness.

CONDUCTING INDEPENDENT RESEARCH

Finally, alternative data and web scraping could help governments enrich their traditional dataset on various topics. Similar attempts have been made by researchers at the Billion Prices Project.

Web scraping was employed by researchers at the various projects associated with BPP. Primarily, it was used as a way to measure inflation in countries without having to resort to official statistics.

BPP turned out to be extremely effective in countries where such information was manipulated or suppressed. It, however, would be just as useful as an additional hedge against the current ways of

measuring inflation, such as CPI.

They scraped millions of products and their prices in order to track changes in valuations over time. Presumably, with enough products, that would give a good estimation of the changes in the value of money.

Comparisons can then be drawn in order to get a better glimpse of the changing economy. Web scraping is doubly helpful as regular data collection methods usually have significant lag. Web scraping delivers data nearly instantaneously, which would make predictions significantly more accurate.

Making cyber risk reporting fit for purpose.

It is an uncomfortable truth that, for most boards, cyber risk reporting is either ineffective or immature. Against a range of threats that now encompasses the challenges of securing the supply chain and thirdparty companies, insider threats (be they accidental or malicious), the increased volume and sophistication of ransomware and the dawn of advanced, persistent threats, the picture painted to executive leadership is invariably lacking.

By Alastair Dickson, director, Quod Orbis.

Making cyber risk reporting fit for purpose.

For those of us involved in IT security, it can be painful to admit, but compared to the reports that the board gets from other areas of the business, cyber risk assessments are poorly understood and fail to garner support.

They fall so short because they lack the necessary business context, and often present threats in isolation. The reason for this is that the cyber teams in an organisation will typically gather static, sample data that cannot give anything like the comprehensive assurance a board needs or demonstrate a compelling narrative.

To add insult to injury, this data is presented poorly – it is either difficult to understand, isolated from other areas of risk, or both. It fails on every level for the board that will be liable for the attack and bear the indirect fall out of substantial loss of reputation.

THE ROOTS OF THE ISSUE

Underneath this problem of poor reporting is the false assumption that an organisations ‘cyber tooling’ – the technology to identify, track, capture and remediate threats - is both up to date, and integrated. The hopeful theory is that security teams have a current, holistic view of all risks. The reality in practice is multiple, isolated pieces of technology, based on out-of-date data.

To give an idea of the scope of this issue: in early 2023, we surveyed a range of IT decision-makers in the UK and asked them how deep into the technology estate these businesses had to dive, in

order to ensure they had representative and accurate figures. 15% of businesses reported that they needed to access more than 90% of their technology, a further 37% said they needed to access between 70 and 90% and another 25% said they needed to access between 50 and 70%.

Consequently, the best the team can do is a set of single point metrics based on the most recent data. There is no visibility into the overall effectiveness of the multiple tools that a business has invested in. Organisations should approach cyber systems as a combined, dynamic mesh and not as individual use technologies. But they do not. Hence the issues with reporting to the board.

The biggest question is how bad is this situation? Our research showed that 47% of respondents report a general level of ignorance of key risk indicators throughout the business.

Overcoming this situation is becoming a top priority for many enterprises; partly because of the demands of regulation, partly due to the ever-growing array of threats that need to be tracked and reported on, and partly because existing investment in cybersecurity systems has been found to deliver poor returns.

Most CISOs are realising that this lack of integration is a major challenge. This does not make

them ‘bad’ CISOs but reflects the reality that without the ability to automate reporting across multiple technologies in real time, using 100% of the data, it is virtually impossible to do anything other than static snapshots. And these snapshots become obsolete within seconds.

GETTING IT RIGHT

Successful cyber risk reporting needs a system that firstly spans multiple sources, then automates the collation of data, and finally compliments the wider risk reporting requirements.

The first issue is one of being able to draw on any framework or source of data to feed the technology that generates the reports. These can be viewed as assets of a company that create data – thus there is both a risk to the asset itself and to the data it creates.

The onboarding of a new asset and the data it creates needs to be fast, easy and ‘trustable’ – which is to say there must be a high degree of confidence in the data

it presents, and that the asset will not cause issues for the existing systems and sources already feeding into the risk analysis.

The second issue is a recognition that the technology must be continuous and automated, to need minimal human input on a day-to-day basis. This automation can then be made more sophisticated and valuable by automatically generating and delivering reports in line with board expectations at any given point. Typically, this is in line with compliance or audit demands, meaning that business leaders can request accurate reports on progress towards these objectives at any point.

The last point is not merely one of ensuring consistent presentation between the reporting of cyber risks and wider risks within the business, but also ensuring that the visibility and subsequent evaluation and prevention of risks is consistent.

CONSOLIDATING THE STRATEGY INTO A SINGLE TECHNOLOGY

These three aspects are found in continuous controls monitoring (CCM) technology. This is a combination of software and services designed to automate cybersecurity and risk management processes, continuously monitoring the key systems and data within them, to increase operational efficiencies, enhance cyber resilience, automate compliance and mitigate risk. The simple truth is that the more a business automates, the more it removes the risk of human error.

Better visibility of assets and improved, consistent cyber risk reporting are inevitable benefits of this technology. Once this visibility and accountability are in place, it naturally follows that the security and compliance posture of the organisation will improve. Automation then enables this improved posture to evolve.

Given the huge investment in cybersecurity technology made by most businesses, the continually expanding list of cyber threats and the fact that any one of those threats is becoming more damaging, cyber risk reporting should not be allowed to go it alone.

A successful experimentation culture.

Experimentation and constant invention are playing an increasingly critical role in creating more engaging customer experiences that can transform businesses and allow them to unlock their digital potential. As Sky’s Head of Digital Transformation, Abdul Mullick, said: “The differentiator for us is ensuring that we experiment our way to a better customer experience.” Similarly, most other digital giants, including Amazon, claim the key source of their continued success is a thriving experimentation culture that empowers marketers to build ever more engaging and personalized customer experiences. However, recent Optimizely research shows that not all marketers are embracing a culture of experimentation. Only 39% say their teams are progressive and try out new ideas, and almost a quarter went as far as to say their digital marketing approach is stuck in the past.

By Shafqat Islam, Chief Marketing Officer, Optimizely.

A successful experimentation culture.

The root cause seems to lie in the strategies being adopted. More than a third (37%) of marketers either have a fixed approach to building digital experiences, or no strategy in place at all. It also points to a lack of understanding of how to incorporate experimentation.

So how can CMOs adapt? Here is a six-step guide on how to foster an effective experimentation culture that will deliver strong business outcomes.

1. CREATE A DYNAMIC STRATEGY

Digital experience strategies need to be intrinsically linked to the objectives of the business — and our research shows a clear understanding of those goals, from marketing assistant to marketing manager and CMO.

While goals are fixed, a digital experience strategy should be a living, dynamic process which adapts as needed. Progressive marketers are developing and optimizing their digital experience strategy on an ongoing basis and in doing so are creating a culture of continuous improvement.

2. WITH EXPERIMENTATION, THERE ARE NO FAILURES, ONLY WINNERS OR LEARNINGS.

Taking risks and stepping outside of your comfort zone can be daunting but having the confidence to try something different can really pay off. A successful experimentation culture is always underpinned by an attitude that accepts the possibility of failure – as long as any failure turns into an opportunity to learn.

There is an important difference between embracing risk and being reckless, which means no shortcuts, planning everything and meticulously executing.

But even then, if things do not go to plan, failure itself has an intrinsic value. When something does not work, we learn more about what does, and this is integral to informing more effective risktaking in the future. That is why experiments must be visible to the whole organization. It is the only way to build and maintain a strong culture of experimentation where we can all continually learn and improve.

3. CHAMPION CREATIVITY AT ALL LEVELS OF THE ORG

Only one in 10 junior marketers say they do not have the freedom to try new things, which is not only a positive indication of creative experimentation, but also of a culture that involves everyone.

Our research shows more junior members of the marketing team are more willing to try out new things than marketing managers. Perhaps, it reflects a lack of experience, but I believe it is more linked to being open-minded and not shackled to established approaches. Encourage junior team members to speak out and contribute new ideas — they are the CMOs of tomorrow.

4. PROVIDE GUIDANCE AND TRAINING

Do not be misguided into thinking experimentation means being unstructured or throwing ideas around to see which one makes a difference. Experimentation is a discipline that needs focus and methodical thinking to achieve the best outcomes.

Give everyone, regardless of experience or seniority, the opportunity to learn about how to apply the science of experimentation to creative thinking, and how to use the tools that can support this process.

Embrace a new mindset and operational practice that embeds experimentation into how resources, roadmap and investments are prioritized. Leadership support is also required to evolve organizations to embrace a culture of removing assumptions (and bias) out of decision making.

Establish a ‘Center of Excellence’ concept — where your experimentation lead can train ‘champions’ within every line of business — will also allow your organization to scale and safeguard incremental headcount costs.

5. MONITOR PROGRESS TOWARD DESIRED GOALS

An experimentation culture will lead to positive business outcomes if it is supported by metrics and data analysis to determine whether a particular idea or approach has achieved its desired outcome.

At the start, quantify what success looks like, determine your metrics, and then rigorously analyze performance. Such a process will generate learnings about what works and what does not, and lead to ongoing improvements to digital experiences. The results of the experiment may actually surprise the team, leading to further creative thinking and innovation.

6. USE EXPERIMENTATION TOOLS

Using enterprise-grade experimentation tools will allow you to bring the structure you need to experiment effectively and at scale. Experiment with your digital experience, not with the principles of testing, personalization, and measurement. Use a platform that is designed to allow you to set up and test changes before going live, analyze and optimize your results, and use your data to speak to individual customers on a oneto-one basis.

Ultimately, organizations that embrace an experimentation culture are those that are far more likely to succeed in building brand loyalty, growing revenue and market share, and standing apart from the competition.

A people-first approach.

There was a recent EY statistic I read that said 78% of CEOs will look to conduct mergers and acquisitions (M&As) in countries geopolitically and economically aligned with their home country, this year. The report refers to this as “friendshoring”, a deglobalisation reaction to our post-pandemic challenges and uncertainties. It’s an interesting idea, in that it feeds directly into how businesses should approach any M&A in the first place. If you don’t minimize risk and ensure there is synergy between your products, people and customers, then the chances of that M&A succeeding diminish considerably.

By Neil Barua is President of the Service Lifecycle Management group at PTC.

A people-first approach.

According to PwC, we are currently in a “sweet spot for M&A” but this could also mean a lot of pain and failure if businesses do not get the integration right. Traditionally, M&A integrations struggle. While PwC suggests that companies need “well-thoughtout strategies”, it also warns that they may need “courage.” In reality, you need a mix of everything but above all, there needs to be a focus on people. Being acquired creates heightened states of excitement and tension. Recognizing how this impacts employees and customers and realising there is no one-size-fitsall approach is fundamental.

Firstly, any M&A should be customer focused. Understanding how customers view your M&A is so important to its validity and success. Understandably, customers will want to know how an M&A impacts their investments in your products and services. It’s a moment of risk, so communicating with customers early (even before preferably) in the process will help to manage that risk.

I’m the former CEO of ServiceMax and current President of PTC’s Service Lifecycle Management group. ServiceMax provides cloud-based software and mobile apps that give customers a complete view of their equipment assets to field service teams. We were acquired by PTC earlier this year. It’s a good fit as PTC can now extend its Product Lifecycle Management software into Service Lifecycle Management. When PTC bought ServiceMax, there was no immediate change and there won’t be for at least six months. It’s a policy of ‘do no harm,’ watch and learn and see how each organization works. It provides some stability for employees and customers

and gives leadership teams an opportunity to fine tune plans.

While ServiceMax had its own acquisitive M&A strategy, this is now the second time my organization has been acquired. (GE Digital purchased the company back in 2017 for just under a billion dollars before selling it to a private equity firm when they restructured a few years later). I’ve experienced both friction and frustration as well as excitement and alignment.

What underpins everything here is communication. How each organization presents the deal and post-deal plans to employees and customers has to be open and positive. Clear lines of communication, from the top down but also horizontally across both organizations are essential. This doesn’t happen by magic. It has to be managed to ensure consistency and to create a platform to address any employee concerns.

CULTURAL ANIMALS

In any M&A we hear so much about culture. And that’s for a good reason. Cultural differences can hurt any integration, so understanding cultures and how they can work together or better still, evolve into more dynamic, embracing cultures, is really important. As McKinsey outlined in an article on addressing the unseen forces within M&A, leaders need to understand existing cultures, to then be able to set a new, cultural direction for an ambitious, combined business.

“Over the longer term, companies with aligned corporate cultures and strong organizational health deliver, on average, total shareholder returns three times those of companies whose cultures and organizational health are not closely linked. Given the magnitude of the benefit, cultural alignment should be central to any merger integration.”

Having been through M&As several times in my career as CEO, it is something that I still think is vastly underrated and often delegated to Corporate Comms as a given. Clearly communicating our intentions to employees is just a part of that process. Leveraging influential employees helps to champion change and help to assuage any fears. Being open and honest about goals and strategies empower employees and will help you identify key elements of each culture. We all have to ask the questions; what do we stand for now and what do we want to stand for tomorrow? What’s changed and is everyone on board? How do we want to work together and what will enable our new, joined-up business to thrive for years to come?

Culture is fluid, not a static thing that can be ticked off a ‘to do’ list. It impacts employees and customers alike. Engage with customers early, identify risks and opportunities for improvements and growth, and walk in other people’s shoes, both customer and employee, to underpin your decision making. From this foundation, you can build on the more practical elements of integration, such as the technology systems and the processes. From there on in, you can execute your product plans and business strategy. Of course, the unexpected can happen, but if your people are onboard, any business has a better chance of flourishing.

Large language models in the enterprise.

ChatGPT, Bing, Bard. From relative obscurity, these platforms have launched themselves into the public domain in the last few months. Each is a specific product developed by different companies, but they are all built on top of the same class of technologies called Large Language Models (LLMs). What is a LLM? And what makes it “large”? A LLM is a neural network model architecture based on a specific component called a “transformer.” The transformer gives the LLM the ability to identify how words relate to each other in their context and produce unique answers to questions, rather than “looking up” responses. A vast number of “neurons” make up this neural network, and the connections between these neurons are called “parameters.” These parameters define the strength of the signal between neurons.

By Kurt Muehmel, Everyday AI Strategic Director, Dataiku.

Large language models in the enterprise.

To put the size of LLMs into perspective, one of the models behind ChatGPT has 175 billion parameters. Clearly, these models can be incredibly large, and can therefore offer impressive performance capabilities for the enterprise. The flip side is that they can also become very complex and costly.

Therefore, considering the size and capability of a LLM is key to deciding how best to use it. So, what are the options?

USING LLMS IN THE ENTERPRISE

There are two ways you can utilise a LLM in the enterprise beyond the simple web interface.

1 — You can make an API call to a model provided as-a-service

These services are generally on offer by companies like OpenAI, Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure. These companies provide public APIs that you can connect to your software . With this approach, there are several advantages, including:

- Low barrier to entry — calling an API is a straightforward task that a junior developer can do in a matter of minutes

- Higher sophistication — you can leverage some of the largest and most sophisticated models available, providing more accurate responses on a wide range of topics

- Speed — generally these models provide quick responses, so you can use them in real-time

But while convenient and powerful, these public models are not suited for certain enterprise applications. Their being public means that data from the query may be retained and used for further development of the model. So, enterprises need to check and see whether the architecture respects their data residency and privacy obligations for their use case.

Additionally, there’s potential to accrue high costs, as most public APIs have a fee structure that charges according to the number of queries and the length of processed text. You can usually get cost estimates and use smaller/ cheaper models for narrower tasks. Finally, though rare, the provider of an API can choose to stop the service at any moment; it’s risky to depend on a pipeline whose flow you don’t control.

2 — You can download and run an open-source model in an environment you manage

Given some of the limitations of harnessing a public model via an API, companies may be better off creating and running an opensource model themselves.

There’s a whole range of opensource models available, each characterised by strengths and weaknesses that will be more or less suited to a company’s needs. A smaller model — while limited in application — can often deliver a desired performance on a specific use case at far less the cost than a very large model. Moreover, by running and maintaining open-source models themselves, organisations are not dependent on a third-party API service.

But this approach might not be every organisation’s cup of tea. The process can, firstly, involve a high level of complexity, as to set up and maintain your own LLM requires a level of data science and engineering expertise beyond that of simpler models. Companies need to self-evaluate honestly to

see if they have sufficient expertise and time to build and maintain such a model in the long term.

And then, secondly, there is the issue of narrower performance. Open-source community models are smaller and more focused in their application, whereas the huge models on offer via public APIs can cover an astonishing breadth and variety of topics.

CHOOSING AN APPROACH

Taking into account the tradeoffs of each approach, you might ask: does one outweigh the other? In simple terms, no. In fact, there is no one-size-fits-all approach that could work enterprise-wide. Even within companies themselves, the best ways to choose which model and architecture to use should rest on a use case by use case basis.

Both options allow you to choose from smaller and larger models, with tradeoffs in terms of the breadth of their potential applications, the sophistication of the language generated, and the cost and complexity of using the model. For many enterprises,

either method may be suited for different use cases at different times, depending on fluctuating budgets, capacity, and resources.

The companies that will have the greatest success using LLMs are those that can take an agile approach that allows them to opt for the right model for any given application.

Innovation with LLMs is rapidly advancing. Companies that can be flexible and adapt to these changes will reap the greatest benefits from them.

The cost of poor CX and how to turn it around.

In the current economic climate, businesses are facing a multitude of challenges, including inflation, disrupted supply chains and talent shortages. Poor customer experience can have a significant impact on an organisation’s bottom line. To survive and thrive, businesses need the support of a loyal customer base, which requires delivering excellent customer experience (CX). CX is more important than ever, with 32% of customers around the world reporting they would stop doing business with a brand after just one bad experience – that number increases to just under 50% after several negative experiences. This has made CX the fastest growing priority area for customer care leaders, yet many are struggling with how to best meet consumers’ growing demands with reduced budgets. To meet increasing expectations, organisations need to improve CX by delivering fast, personalised experiences that reflect individuals’ unique needs.

By Nicky Hjerpe, Product Marketing Manager at Netcall.

The cost of poor CX and how to turn it around.

The stakes are high, with companies providing excellent CX achieving up to 75% better margins, average retention rates of 89%, and 30% greater lifetime value from their customer base.

Customers want to be able to connect with businesses anytime, anywhere and through the channel of their choice. The ‘experience’ component of customer experience has never been more important. Customers are not just interested in the products and services they’re engaging with; they also care about the quality of their interactions with organisations.

HOW CAN THIS LEVEL OF SERVICE BE ACHIEVED?

CX needs to be transformed through an ongoing process of digitalisation that improves systems and processes, provides employees with tools and resources to help customers, as well as considers customer feedback. A platform equipped with advanced customer engagement technology, including omnichannel automation within a customer facing contact centre solution, can empower organisations to deliver the outcomes necessary for a modern, competitive CX strategy. This includes reducing data silos, which are considered the number-one customer data challenge facing customer experience leaders. Data silos prevent agents from having all the information they need to resolve a customer enquiry. As a result, customers are often bounced around, waiting in additional queues for agents in other departments, repeating their enquiry several times. This is a frustrating experience for customers and employees. Both have their time wasted, which

costs organisations in terms of productivity and revenue. Through the use of low-code workflow development tools, disparate systems can be brought together. This enables the freemovement of data needed for agents to not only resolve customer issues rapidly and satisfactorily, but to also deliver an enriching personalised CX experience that leaves customers feeling valued, increasing their loyalty. Omnichannel queue management can triage incoming enquiries through any contact channel (voice, chat, chatbot, SMS, email, website form or social channels) and match agents with the most appropriate cases. This paves the way for faster and smoother end-to-end customer journeys.

Advanced omnichannel capabilities are what allowed Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council to use web-assisted interactions for 78% of enquiries in order to still deliver a positive experience to 99% of customers despite a 300% surge in activity during the pandemic-induced lockdowns. Similarly, Cairn

Housing Group, was able to leverage an omnichannel contact centre solution to meet the growing needs of its tenants. They wanted to empower tenants to log enquiries or requests quickly, as well as develop the capabilities to deliver rapid resolution times. However, they had to overcome their disconnected back-office systems and lack of self-service solutions. Their omnichannel solution allowed them to deliver seamless services across all channels, increase efficiency and secure returns on their investment. In just four months, their low-code developed portal enabled them to make 16 services available to tenants at any time and led to the completion of nearly 6,000 cases.

Robotic process automation (RPA) supports CX by empowering customers to self-service for simple queries. Automations can keep customers up-to-date and notify them of needed actions, only looping in agents once they’re input becomes valuable. This boosts employee morale by giving them time back to focus on more complicated customer service cases and valuable tasks.

Meanwhile, bots attend to the mundane and repetitive work. Because robots can operate 24/7 at peak performance, efficiency and accuracy are further enhanced by incorporating them into operations. Customer waiting times are drastically reduced thanks to robots’ constant availability, which increases the time availability of agents. These capabilities are expanded by complementing RPA with artificial intelligence (AI). This widens the breadth of tasks that bots can tackle thanks to AI’s decisionmaking capabilities.

Real-time insights and AI-delivered predictive analytics empower organisations and their employees with the information needed to optimise the customer journey, maximise efficiency, best support agents, and continue to improve their overall CX strategy on an ongoing basis. To address the demands of a rapidly expanding customer base, ATS Euromaster (ATSE), the British affiliate of the European tyre and maintenance service provider, Euromaster, used AI-powered RPA to pursue its growth ambitions whilst fostering

employee wellbeing. Robots were used to take on highly repetitive tasks that were previously run up to 200 times a day by human employees. This greatly unburdened employees, enabling them to prioritise enhancing the customer experience.

Transforming customer experience goes beyond simply bettering individual touchpoints, it requires transformation at scale, so that various channels interact and share information with each other. Combining these advanced technologies unleashes intelligent automation capabilities, allowing these solutions to work together to join-up and automate workflows at scale across the customer journey.

LONG-TERM COSTS OF POOR CX

The cost of poor CX can be significant – loss of customers, reputation damage and increases in customer service costs among them. Conversely, prioritising CX can lead to increased customer retention, revenue growth and positive word-of-mouth marketing. CX should be a

key priority for businesses and organisations looking to not only succeed in today’s competitive market but also remain viable in the long-term.

As technology continues to advance and new generations enter the market, customers’ expectations will only grow. Both customers and employees are increasingly vocal about their needs and wants. Digitalisation of the customer journey will play an integral role in satisfying these demands and securing the longterm viability of organisations in the public and private sectors.

Capturing the potential of IoT requires us to rethink connectivity .

The cynical view is that the Internet of Things (IoT) has failed to deliver on the hype. It is an industry that has overpromised and been unable to drive the expected digital transformation of business and the economy. It’s true that, while the potential economic value of the IoT has been clear for a while, capturing it has proved challenging. But it would be a mistake to dismiss the IoT as hyperbole. It can still be the heartbeat of digital transformation.

By Michael Karlsen, Co-founder and CEO at Onomondo.

Capturing the potential of IoT requires us to rethink connectivity.

It is central to our ability to bring together the digital and physical worlds, providing the tools to change the way businesses function and the way people live. And the pent-up value is still there, and growing – by 2030, it is estimated that the technology could enable $5.5 trillion to $12.6 trillion in value globally.

The challenge now is unlocking this value. This requires us to rethink our approach, starting with addressing the connectivity problem.

SQUARE CONNECTIVITY PEG, ROUND IOT HOLE

Connectivity is one of the core components of the IoT – it quite literally puts the “I” in IoT. But it is often an afterthought, as legacy infrastructure and network operators, which weren’t designed with IoT in mind, are retrofitted to new use cases.

This has resulted in a myriad of different issues for the sector. Most notably, end-users are often burdened with the task of finding their own data plans to fuel their projects, and once they do make that choice, they’re often locked into one provider. That is, users will receive their devices without SIM cards, forcing them to choose a single network provider on their own that locks them into a particular service.

In mobile devices, this isn’t necessarily such a big issue – you can switch to another network provider by easily accessing and replacing the SIM card. However, imagine you are monitoring equipment in a remote location –it’s a lot more difficult to replace SIM cards because of the lack of access to the physical device. This is made even more awkward as embedded SIMs do not require physical card insertion.

This result is that today’s user experience is baked with inflexibility. For example, you are a mining firm that is transporting mined stone, which means you only really need to look at the data intermittently to check in on the status of your shipment. However, a few weeks later, you are transporting a shipment of precious materials, so you need a network that always enables you to access data on the precise location of your shipment.

This example requires an agile solution, which recognizes that no one IoT project is ever the same. They differ in needs and configurations, and requirements often change over time, so they need to be able to move from one network operator to another freely and to seek the best deals on the market that fit their requirements at the time.

Instead, the status quo means that they will likely have to adopt and switch between a patchwork of IoT partnerships for different use cases, which becomes not only difficult to manage, but also expensive.

CHANGING HOW WE THINK OF CONNECTIVITY

Some IoT device manufacturers have started implementing eSIM (eUICC) standards. While this solution is a little more flexible than regular SIMs and you may be able to avoid a network lockin, the embedded commercial agreements can be equally inflexible.

Given the importance of connectivity to the success of IoT projects and uptake, the supply side needs to capture this requirement for greater agility. That is, we must move beyond out-of-date network practices and adopt more flexible and reliable connectivity alternatives.

That’s where embedding connectivity comes in. Rather than it being an afterthought,

connectivity should be built into a device at a manufacturing level. Providing IoT users with embedded connectivity solutions firstly means reducing costs and saving time, as connectivity implementation is rolled into the manufacturing process.

Choosing to embed connectivity into devices before they’re shipped also means that end-users are able to control what kind of connectivity options the devices will be capable of and precisely what networks devices connect to. This means that deployments can be scaled safely over long periods of time without losing operational freedom to vendor lock-ins.

A NEW COMMERCIAL MODEL?

This new approach to connectivity also lays the groundwork for an entirely new commercial model for IoT, giving users the flexibility to balance the quality of coverage and cost-optimization, depending on the use case.

Taking a step back – at a simple level, the role of a SIM card is to give your devices a connection so

they can send and receive data, which is the primary source of value that IoT network providers offer. But the status quo means that users are often charged for how many devices they have connected, regardless of how they are being used – that’s an expensive way to run things, particularly if you have an armada of devices to look after.

Not only does embedding connectivity at the manufacturing level already give more control at an operational level, but it can also translate this greater commercial control, such as allowing users to only be charged for the data they actually need –if a device isn’t using any data, you aren’t being charged. This reduces the overhead of IoT connectivity, provides you with a flexible solution, and means that products can be tested easier on the factory floor, since activating devices early on won’t result in excessive device fees. Returning to the mining company that transports different materials – under traditional forms of connectivity, it’s clear that it would have been an expensive operation to run. But with embedded connectivity, and

the flexibility it offers to balance the need for quality coverage and costs in different use cases (transporting stone is different from transporting precious materials), immediately makes IoT far more scalable and aligned with modern, digital transforming businesses.

UNLOCKING IOT’S POTENTIAL

In times of downturn, IoT can be used to generate deep business insights, improve efficiency, and ultimately save money. In good times, if properly harnessed, IoT can provide insights that support the investment in new dynamic business models.

But the truth is that this value is still under lock and key. And unpicking it requires us to rethink connectivity for the era of IoT rather than mobile. When we do, the full potential and scale that IoT can bring will be there for all to see.

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